Consultation on updating South Australia’s bushfire hazard policy and mapping is now open
South Australians are invited to have their say on a proposal to update bushfire hazard mapping and effectively plan for and mitigate the impacts of bushfire hazards across the state.
The State-wide Bushfire Hazards Overlay Code Amendment is being undertaken by the State Planning Commission and seeks to update the spatial application of the bushfire hazard overlays to reflect recent bushfire hazard mapping, and review the policy contained in each of the overlays.
In May 2022, the South Australian Government declared a climate emergency. Climate change is expected to result in more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Severe bushfires will occur more often and, without action, will have devastating impacts on our communities. These proposed changes to the Code aim to better reflect bushfire risk across the state and introduce new rules to help save lives and build more climate-resilient communities.
The draft Code Amendment proposes to update existing bushfire hazard mapping and apply new bushfire hazard mapping where the level of bushfire hazard has not previously been mapped.
In addition to updating the bushfire hazard mapping across the state, the draft Code Amendment also seeks to deliver an improved policy framework to enable more effective assessment of development in areas of bushfire hazard risk, putting in place policy that aims to minimise bushfire risk on people, property, infrastructure, the environment and economy.
Bushfire hazard mapping has been undertaken for most of the state with the application of ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘general’ bushfire risk areas.
The draft Code Amendment is out for community engagement from 23 November 2023 to 5:00 pm, 8 March 2024.
A series of in-person and online public information sessions will be held in early 2024. Details will be published on the YourSAy website.
For more information, view the proposed bushfire hazard mapping and to submit feedback, visit the YourSAy website.